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You may recognize this lovely bride’s smile from American Idol. She was a finalist on Season 8, and her wedding? We’ll let’s just say, it’s weddings like this that will live on the pages of SMP forever, known simply as stunning. Pretty as a picture (and oh Christina Carroll Photography‘s pictures tell quite the beautiful story), I can’t help but file this one away in my wedding-brain-catalog under the heading of Gorgeous. The bride, the groom, the kids, the fashion… the cake. All absolutely gorgeous, stunning, pretty, and perfect. Click here for more!

We met in April 2007 at a mutual friends birthday party. I’m a singer/songwriter and Justin is a personal injury attorney here in Austin. I guess they say opposites attract because that we are. I am pretty much the definition of a right brain person and Justin is completely left!

For years people had tried to get me to audition for American Idol, but I never did. Shortly after we started dating, I came home and Justin had printed out all the paper work and audition facts for American Idol and insisted that I audition. I don’t know what it was but something about him gave me the courage and the faith in myself that I could do it. That year, I successfully became a contestant on American Idol Season 8 making it all the way to the top 36 and onto the live show!

He has so much faith in me and supports and pushes me to do things that I never through I could do. Its all of this that make me love him so much. His drive and Left-brain ways round out my right brain ways and make me a better, more rounded person.

Justin is such a driven person. I have to brag. This year he was nominated as one of the youngest “Rising stars of Texas Attorneys” to ever be recognized by Texas Monthly. We met right after he took the Bar and its just be absolutely amazing to watch him grow and succeed!

Justin proposed on New Years Eve 2011 in front of all of our closest friends and family. I never expected a thing and was completely shocked! We were hosting a NYE party at the W Hotel which is why I thought that all of our friends and family wanted to come into town. We held a pre-party at our condo before we went to the hotel and it was there that Justin said “He had a toast to Make.” Even at that point, I was still clueless. I just thought he was making a New Years toast! It was then that he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him!

We knew from the beginning that we would be having a very big wedding. My grandmother was one of 20 so my family alone was probably over 100 guests. But, we have always been “the more, the merrier” type of people. I knew I wanted something grand, and elegant, yet classic. We did creams, whites, blushes with pops of gold and silver.

The one thing that we knew before anything else was that we wanted our wedding to be a PARTY! My family is from Louisiana and the one thing we do best is dance, eat, and drink! So having an amazing band, awesome food, and an endless open bar was a priority!

I have been to a lot of weddings at the Driskill and it was important to me to make ours uniquely different. So, Olivia (owner of Liv by Design) along, with Townsly and David Kurio came up with a vision to turn the ballroom into a completely different space.

We completely covered the carpet of the ballroom with white carpet and brought in lounge furniture. The most amazing part of the room was that there were 13 foot cut out spaces in the walls in which had our engagement photos blown up to 21ft photos and placed in the spots. (We did a Mad Men Theme for our engagement photos because we are both completely obsessed with that show) It was so amazing! Probably the biggest question from the night from our guest was “What are you going to do with them after?”

Another amazing detail was my wedding cake and my cake table. My dress was layered cream, white, blush, and peach tulle. Making my dress light pink. First of all, I never dreamed in a million years that I would wear a pink wedding dress. But when I saw it and knew it was the one! The linens of the cake table looked just like my dress. Probably one of my favorite photos was me in my wedding dress, squatting down next to my cake table!

Another favorite moment which has become a family tradition is a dance my dad does in a moment of celebration. Its called “the gator” in which my dad gets down on the dance floor an basically flops around like a gator. It sounds silly but he is known for doing it!

It was such a beautiful day and there were so many people who helped to make it happen!